I just realized, my family has sleep-related issues, and they’re not just the run-of-the-mill types most people suffer from, like insomnia and snoring. We have things like sleepwalking and lip-popping. Weird, eh?

Alex is the sleepwalker in the family. As a child, he used to scare the wits out of A♥ and me by wandering around the house while totally, absolutely asleep. He started doing it at four years old, around the time he started sleeping independently in a toddler bed. One time, we followed him to the bathroom and he just stood there, sleeping. True story!

A♥ and Alphonse, on the other hand, both make popping noises with their lips when they sleep, and the sound is almost similar to bubbles being popped in bubble wrap. Cute but definitely weird! My husband insists I am making this up so I do have a few videos to prove it.

And then, just recently, I discovered something new. We have a sleep-talker. Yes, you heard it right- a sleep-talker.

The first time it happened, three nights ago, we were awakened by Alphonse’s animated voice coming loud and clear from the other side of the room. It must have been around two or three in the morning. Usually, when he wakes up in the middle of the night all bubbly and perky, it’s a sign that we are not going to get any more sleep for the night. But three nights ago, it was different.

Since his bed is directly across ours (he sleeps in his own bed but still inside our room), we could easily see if he was up and about any time of the night. We were surprised to find him still lying in bed. We waited for what he would do next, while we pretended to be asleep. Well, he talked loudly for a few minutes, and then there was just silence. Minutes later, he was snoring as if nothing had happened. Was he awake? I don’t know.

The other night, we heard more of the same thing, and just like the first episode, he went back to snoring after a while. At dawn this morning, he groaned a bit, said a few more unintelligible words, and then slept again!

A♥ says its probably genetic. He says I am a sleep-talker too, and cites instances when I awakened them all with screams for help (well, perfectly excusable as that was the time I dreamt I was being eaten by zombies) or loud sobbing. What can I say? Perhaps he is right.

And yet I wonder if it has anything to do with Alphonse watching The Sims FreePlay on the iPad. I thought of using The Sims to teach and model actions for him; it’s a good thing he likes looking at them move about. He has shown a preference for toddler characters and given choices for activities, he has demonstrated clearly his choices of interactions for specific characters. His favorite, obviously, is water play for the baby. You have to see him smile a lot when the baby starts splashing water. And when the Sims talk, sometimes, he talks back and giggles with them!

His favorite activity in The Sims FreePlay

Last night, as we tried to decipher Alphonse’s “talking,” it suddenly dawned on me who he sounded like- a Sim! Could it be he speaks Simlish too?

~0~

If you’ve never played with The Sims, here is a YouTube video of what they sound like:

6 Responses to “Talk Simlish to Me!”

It was so great reading this! My sleep-abnormalities don’t seem so weird now…
I am told that I walk in my sleep too – all over the place and I can unlock doors as well! Apparently I talk in my sleep – I can carry on a whole conversation in my sleep… (husband has no video-proof yet…)
He also keeps talking about the fact that I am terrified of moths. Yip, MOTHS. I have horrid recurring dreams about going into the livingroom and finding my Sylvanian display cases infested with moths eating up all of my critters!!! According to him, I wake up yelling about moths and swatting at imaginary spiders and moths crawling over me.